nventor Nikola Tesla imagined the technology to transmit energy through thin
air almost a century ago, but experimental attempts at the feat have so far
resulted in cumbersome devices that only work over very small distances. But
now, Duke University researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of wireless
power transfer using low-frequency magnetic fields over distances much larger
than the size of the transmitter and receiver.
The advance comes from a team of researchers in Duke's Pratt School of
Engineering, who used metamaterials to create a "superlens" that
focuses magnetic fields. The superlens translates the magnetic field emanating
from one power coil onto its twin nearly a foot away, inducing an electric
current in the receiving coil.
The experiment was the first time such a scheme has successfully sent power
through the air with an efficiency many times greater than what could be
achieved with the same setup minus the superlens.
The results, an outcome of a partnership with the Toyota Research Institute
of North America, appear online in Scientific Reports on Jan. 10.
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